Ex-official detained a second time

Ex-official detained a second time

TBILISI, DFWatch — A former Interior Ministry official who was recently detained, but let out on bail, has again been detained.

Tengiz Gunava, former chair of General Inspection at the Interior Ministry after Bacho Akhalaia was appointed as minister, was called to the prosecutor’s office for interrogation on Thursday. Gunava resigned after Bacho Akhalaia resigned, the latter also being detained for abuse of powers, illegal deprivation of liberty and torture.

When Gunava was detained for the second time, his lawyer Malkhaz Velinjashvili stated that his client is accused of appropriation of 3 000 liters of petrol.

Another, lawyer Giorgi Oniani, informs that Gunava is also accused of abuse of powers and appropriation. The interrogation was about the accounting for 3 000 liters of petrol.

Gunava told journalists before interrogation that he didn’t know why he was called.

“After my interview on Maestro I was required to come at Prosecutor’s Office. As you see I am here and they called me at anticorruption department. I don’t know why. I was told it is related to past activity.”

The prosecutor’s office released a statement about the detention of Gunava, writing that August 11, 2012 he abused powers and decided to gain talons for petrol from the ministry, which he received from Zaza Chokheil, chair of the General Inspection’s administrative service for USD 4 066, but he hasn’t paid for it.

“By the action, the Interior Ministry was inflicted important damage,” the statement says.

In addition, by abusing powers Gunava received a large amount of money from the ministry equal to about USD 6 000, which is proven by the ministry’s cash decree, but the money wasn’t used for job necessity.

When he was first detained, Gunava was charged with illegal possession of weapon and drug use and sentenced to preliminary detention, but was released on a USD 6 000 bail. The trial is scheduled for January 3, 2013.

He appealed against the detectives and investigators of Interior Ministry’s criminal police department claiming that weapon and drugs were placed there during his detention and that he was forced to drink water with drugs.